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Summer vacation seems like the perfect time for your child to catch up on sleep.
In part, that’s true. The summer break is for relaxing and escaping the pressures
of the school year. However, children with too much time on their hands may
resort to irresponsible behavior or get so used to lazy days that going back to
school is tough. Therefore, it’s important that children still have some structure to
their days.
Possible activities
- Time with friends. Encourage your child to get involved with friends in
healthy activities. You may consider getting together with the parents of your
child’s friends to plan day trips that could include hiking, water parks,
museums, mountain biking or amusement parks. It’s important for your child to
spend time with friends in a positive environment.
- Camp. Camps offer a variety of interesting activities, such as horseback riding,
theater, arts, sailing, canoeing and group camping. It’s a great place to meet new
friends and spend a week or two doing new things. Children get to be away
from home, yet still are supervised.
- Classes/lessons. Your child may not want to think about going to class during
the summer, yet there are a lot of great opportunities in your community to
learn fun things. Ask your child if there’s something he or she has always
wanted to learn. Whether it’s taking music lessons, pottery or painting classes
or playing sports in summer recreation programs, help your child get excited
about acquiring new skills.
- Special tasks. For extra allowance or special privileges, you can add special
projects to your child’s list of chores. Think of unusual tasks that might provide
a challenge. Organizing closets and cupboards or weeding the garden may be
things you can’t find the time to do yourself. Your child has time to spend on
these tasks and will benefit from learning what it’s like to complete a big job
from start to finish.
Taking part in activities such as these will keep your child mentally stimulated
over the long break, thus more likely to do better in school the following year.
Providing structure for your child during the summer may be more easily
accepted than you think. Children who have access to lots of interesting
summertime activities may end up having so much fun they don’t even realize
they are on a schedule.
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